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Evergreen State College Announces Budget Shortfall, Layoffs After Leftist Takeover

It's not looking good for the Seattle-area school

Things aren't looking good for Evergreen State College, the Seattle-area school that exploded in progressive-on-progressive ire last year after a professor (who is by no means conservative) complained that he did not want to leave campus during a planned "Day of Absence" last year.

According to a memo circulated among staff and administrators, obtained by The College Fix, the school is facing a dramatic $2.1 million budget shortfall, at least partly because of a 5% drop in enrollment from last year. Most of the students who chose not to return were from out of state, meaning they pay a higher tuition to learn physics through dance, and study the implications of social justice on geometry, so they lost even more money than expected.

Evergreen is also getting less from cash-strapped state coffers, and because of agreements they made with staff, are forced to pay cost-of-living salary increases, even as they can't pay their bills.

Unfortunately for Evergreen faculty, that means layoffs. So far, the school has pink-slipped 17 facilities staff members and, this week, announced a hiring freeze.

"Some notices were rescinded as we try to use scarce local dollars to keep people employed,” the memo states. “… However, if the capital budget crisis at the state level continues indefinitely, layoffs will become impossible to avoid.”

"… In a college where 89 percent of the operating budget is in salaries and benefits, it is impossible to reduce the budget by substantial amounts without giving up positions. In anticipation of this, we will soon be announcing a hiring freeze.”

But their main problem probably isn't a budget impasse in the Washington state legislature; it's that their existing student body is nothing short of insane, at least when taken collectively.

Last year, students harassed and shouted down Professor Bret Weinstein after he refused to leave campus during a "Day of Absence" program that was supposed to demonstrate the contributions of minorities on campus by mandating that all while faculty, staff, and students stay home. Weinstein was eventually berated off campus, and has now filed a lawsuit against the school over what he says is the administration's failure to protect not only his academic freedom, but also his safety.

But that wasn't the only incident on Evergreen's campus that sent student's scurrying for the exits. In the weeks that followed Weinstein's departure, leftist students "took over" Evergreen's campus, and the school was forced to shut down for several days because of threats of violent protest.